A passion for history

South Bend teacher, Civil War buff, adds to his knowledge with Virginia seminar.

South Bend teacher, Civil War buff, adds to his knowledge with Virginia seminar.

July 26, 2006|JIM MEENAN Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND A visit to Mike Downs' office is like visiting a small but fascinating Civil War museum. What he has in one tiny room would make many a curator envious. On one wall is a poster regarding Schuyler Colfax, vice president of the U.S. after the Civil War and former congressman from South Bend. Just a few feet away is a print of the Rev. William Corby, two-time president of Notre Dame. In the print, though, Corby is in his Civil War role of chaplain and is giving his blessing to an Irish brigade before they go into battle in the wheat fields of Gettysburg. Across the way is a photo of South Bend Civil War hero Col. Alfred B. Wade. Hundreds of books adorn shelves on one wall, while a Remington .44-caliber pistol and Enfield rifle are also part of the room. Grip them and you realize being a soldier or even a gunslinger in those days was heavy work. Grip them, also, and you clinch the firsthand look at history that Downs, who has taught at Edison Intermediate Center for 21 years, will share with students at Adams High School this fall. To that end, history enthusiast Downs attended a one-week seminar at the University of Virginia on Civil War history recently. The seminar, sponsored by Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, was led by Virginia history professors Gary Gallagher, a Civil War expert, and Edward Ayers, dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences. Titled "The American Civil War: Origins and Consequences, Battlefields and Home Front," the seminar utilized primary source documents and included a study of the central role of slavery in the Civil War, the ways in which military and civilian affairs intersected, the question of what the war left unresolved and how Americans have remembered the conflict. For Downs, who along with his wife, Carol, takes care of Wade's South Bend grave site, and who also had transcribed and annotated microfilm of Wade's Civil War journals, it was quite a trip. "They focus in on primary source material that teach history, not just a lecture," Downs said. "Where you actually dig out what people were actually writing and saying at that time." Just being part of the seminar gave Downs a unique look into things, just as he got at a previous Gilder Lehrman seminar at Gettysburg. "Just this idea that they make available their Web site, and access to some of these special collections of the University of Virginia and Gettysburg College," make it exceptional, he said. "Being able to work with this stuff and have access and make copies so you can bring it back and use it. And you are working with a real bright group of teachers and others, sort of exchanging ideas and talking about what they have done. That's the neat part of it," Downs said. Gallagher covered one year of the Civil War per day for the students, which included two park rangers and two teachers from England. Ayers examined all the different strands of the war including the roles of the military, women and blacks. Downs received 30 different lesson plans on various aspects of the Civil War, each utilizing primary source material. Downs is eager to share some of what he learned with his students at Adams, where he will be teaching high school students for the first time. How does the Vietnam-era veteran, who spent six years in the Navy, most of them on a submarine as a communications technician, spread his thirst for history with today's students? It starts with the old saying, those that don't know history are bound to repeat it, he said. "I don't just say that, I believe it," he said, quickly comparing reconstruction of Iraq with problems faced in the South after the Civil War. "I think just about everything we look at can be applied to what is going on today."Staff writer Jim Meenan: jmeenan@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6342